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Tuesday, April 26, 2016

New study shows link between e-cigarette ads and use among youth

Reducing
exposure to ads critical to prevent youth e-cigarette use

There
is a link between exposure to e-cigarette advertisements and the use of e-cigarettes
by middle and high school students, according to a new study by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. This is the first study to assess the link
between exposure to e-cigarette advertising and current e-cigarette use, and it
concludes that efforts to reduce youth exposure to advertising are critical to
prevent youth from using e-cigarettes as well as other tobacco products.

The
study, published in the April 2016 edition of the journal Pediatrics, assessed current (past 30-day) use of e-cigarettes and
exposure to e-cigarette advertising in four different types of media: retail
stores, the internet, TV/movies, and magazines/newspapers. The National Youth
Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is a school-based, self-administered questionnaire given
to more than 22,000 middle and high school students in 2014.

Analyzing
data from the 2014 NYTS, CDC researchers found that the greater the exposure to
e-cigarette advertisements among middle and high school students, the greater
the odds of their e-cigarette use. As noted in CDC’s Jan. 5, 2016, Vital Signsreport on e-cigarette
advertising exposure among youth, spending on e-cigarette advertising rose from
$6.4 million in 2011 to an estimated $115 million in 2014. During the same
time, current e-cigarette use among youth soared; from 1.5 percent in 2011 to
13.4 in 2014 among high school students, and from 0.6 percent in 2011 to 3.9
percent in 2014 among middle school students. In 2014, e-cigarettes became the
most commonly used tobacco product among youth, surpassing conventional
cigarettes.

“Kids should not use any type of tobacco product, including
e-cigarettes,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Exposure to
e-cigarette advertising is associated with youth e-cigarette use - and
that is concerning to me as CDC Director, as a doctor, and as a parent.”

Protecting young
people

States
and localities can consider strategies to reduce youth exposure to e-cigarette
advertising and marketing which include:

·Limiting
tobacco product sales to facilities that never admit youth,

·Restricting
the number of stores that sell tobacco products and how close they can be to
schools,

·Limits
on internet sales of e-cigarettes and other tobacco products

“Many of the ads we’re seeing for e-cigarettes
today – that rely on sex, independence and rebellion – look eerily like the ads
that were used to sell cigarettes and other conventional tobacco products for
generations,” said Brian King, Ph.D., deputy director for research translation in
the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Any tobacco use by youth is dangerous
to their health. The
unrestricted marketing of e-cigarettes and dramatic increases in their use by
youth could reverse decades of progress in preventing tobacco use among youth.”

FDA has regulatory authority over cigarettes,
cigarette tobacco, roll-your-own tobacco, and smokeless tobacco. The agency is
finalizing a rule that, if finalized as proposed, will bring additional tobacco
products such as e-cigarettes, hookahs, and some or all cigars under that same
authority. Regulating the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of tobacco
products – coupled with proven population-based strategies – can reduce youth
tobacco use and initiation. These strategies include funding tobacco control
programs at CDC-recommended levels, increasing prices of tobacco products,
implementing and enforcing comprehensive smoke-free laws, and sustaining
hard-hitting tobacco cessation and prevention media campaigns.